Courtesy of James Casto
This photo shows the gym building as it looked shortly before it was demolished in 1982.

Lost Huntington: MU Phys Ed Building

May. 05, 2014 @ 12:00 AM

Editor's note: This is the 24th in a series of articles recalling vanished Huntington landmarks.

HUNTINGTON -- When the future Marshall University entered the 1920s, the college campus still consisted of only two buildings -- Old Main, the oldest part of which dated back to 1868, and Northcott Hall, which welcomed its first students in 1916.

Finally, the campus got a third structure -- a Physical Education Building, which stood just east of the present-day Memorial Student Center. Construction began in 1919 and was completed in 1921. The brick building cost approximately $150,000 to erect.

An elaborate two-day dedication festival was conducted March 3 and 4, 1922. Dr. Frederick R. Hamilton, who was Marshall president from 1919 to 1923, gave the official dedication address. Gov. Ephriam Morgan was also scheduled to speak but was detained in Charleston by last-minute official business. Members of the State Board of Education were on hand and spoke.

Board member J.B. Darst urged the students in the audience to make something worthwhile of themselves "to return the sacrifices your parents have made for you in sending you to school." Surely a sentiment many of today's parents would applaud.

The remarks were followed by physical education demonstrations by female Marshall students and young students at the Marshall Training School. That next evening saw a volleyball demonstration by the men's phys ed classes, a basketball game between Marshall and Alderson Baptist Academy and an operetta in the Old Main auditorium. (Sounds like a rather full night, doesn't it?)

In 1961, when Gullickson Hall was opened, the old building was re-named the Women's Gymnasium and Physical Education Building. The badly dilapidated building was demolished in 1982.

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Lost Huntington: MU Phys Ed Building

May. 05, 2014 @ 12:00 AM

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Lost Huntington

Editor's note: This is the 89th in a series of articles recalling vanished Huntington landmarks.

HUNTINGTON - In the late 1890s, a group of local businessmen purchased land just west of Huntington and developed a new town, Central City. From its birth, the new community worked hard at attracting industry. One of the factories that thrived in Central City was the Huntington Tumbler Co.

Despite its name, Huntington's Davis Opera House by no means limited its entertainment offerings to opera. Over the years, it presented stage plays, concerts, vaudeville programs, touring minstrel shows, local theatrical productions and other shows.

HUNTINGTON - As a teenager, E.W. Mootz worked as an apprentice at the former Schneider Bakery on lower 3rd Avenue in downtown Huntington. In 1905, in partnership with his father, Frederick Mootz, he opened his own bakery at 1933 3rd Ave. He later bought out his father, to become the bakery's sole owner.